By: Dannie-Lu Carr
Did you know that 75% of people are terrified of public speaking? Yet it is one of the most important skills to have in a world where raising your visibility and getting your message out there is more challenging than ever amidst the sheer quantity of ‘stuff’ out there.
As human beings, we can be terrified of being judged, being exposed and being wrong, therefore many people shrink away vocally and worry unnecessarily about the impact they will have when they have to stand or sit in a room full of professionals and put their message forward.
That’s why investing in public speaking is so crucial for the positive development of your business. Your people represent you and so every single conversation they have with clients, potential and existing, as well as internal communications is, in effect, a type of presentation. I always call this ‘presenting the best version of yourself’. And when you put the best version of yourself in the room, you put the best version of the organisation in the room, every single time.
In the UK, levels of anxiety are higher than ever. Last year, almost 30% of the British population was reported to struggle with their everyday lives and work as a result of anxiety. It makes sense. We live in a busy world. We are under a lot of pressure. Think about this: if you work with your people to manage their internal dialogue and worries and give them some new public speaking skills, it could make the world of difference. A happy team is an effective team after all.
In a Public Speaking day, we look at how to manage the inner chimp in your brain, work on how to create a strong vocal and physical impact, how to structure a message and, most importantly, how to stand in your authentic, passionate place and speak with presence and power.
Practise is vital, so a time and place to do plenty of it with unlimited support, zero judgment and on-tap expertise is fundamental to the absorption and ultimate implementation of skills.
The benefits of coaching your people in public speaking are huge: increased confidence, better client relations, more effective influencing, an ability to create strong buy-in, calmness, clearer messaging (both spoken and written), an improvement in personal impact and perceived credibility, and overall, a sense of autonomy and authenticity that can spill into all areas of life and work. It also helps to create more self-awareness and a better sense of how to manage people dynamics, even in trickier situations. And let’s not forget the significant drop in anxiety, meaning a more rested and recharged workforce.
Imagine if your entire team became masters in all of this… what could be possible for them and for your business? To quote an old adage, the possibilities are endless.
So if you are keen to get your people fluent masters at this, you know what to do.
